


Poppies and Tulips (A Hetalia fan-fic)

by BOREDGrace23



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Brothers America & Canada (Hetalia), Hetalia Countries Using Human Names, Other, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:27:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29547924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BOREDGrace23/pseuds/BOREDGrace23
Summary: Even when no one remembers Matthew. He remembers. The pain and the hardships of what the wars had caused. When had a Poppy flower become the most beautiful thing when it was surrounded by blood and flying bullets?I didn't finish this story because I had come up with a better idea for the storyline, the details will be described in the notes.
Relationships: Canada/Netherlands (Hetalia)
Kudos: 6





	Poppies and Tulips (A Hetalia fan-fic)

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:  
> As I explained in the summary, I didn’t finish this story because I didn’t have much skill in story writing. I wrote this story up in July 2020, by now, I have a decent idea of what I want to do with this story!
> 
> So please wait and be patient while I come up with a better storyline for this story.
> 
> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Matthew: Canada  
> Tim: The Netherlands  
> Gilbert: Prussia  
> Arthur: England  
> Alfred: America
> 
> And do feel free to check out my youtube channel! It's BOREDGrace23.

June 29th, 2019  
Matthew’s POV.

“Netherlands?” Matthew stops to stare at the Netherlands who only looks at the tall shy country.

“Matthijs- Canada, why did you fight in the world wars?” Matthew blinks at the sudden question Netherlands asked. Of course he did, why wouldn’t he? But why would the Netherlands ask him? And why would he call him by his human name? Matthew could only ponder questions. 

“Why? It’s so I could protect-“ Netherland grabs Matthews shoulders, pulling him into a hug, Matthew lets out a squeak of surprise before blinking and letting the country hug him. Out of shock and surprise, he hugs back and rubs the Netherlands back in a circular motion, Netherland digs his head between Matthews’s shoulder and head not saying a word.

“Hey, Nether-“

“Don’t speak,” Netherland says in his usual bored tone, interrupting Matthew. They stay like this until Netherlands phone buzzes in his pocket, he pulls back from the hug that felt like an eternity to the Canadian and looks at the Netherlands, smiling sheepishly.

Matthew had no clue as to why the Netherlands hugged him, scratch that, noticed him at all. The only nations to notice or even acknowledge his existence was France or his brother, maybe England sometimes.

“S-Sorry...” Netherlands awkwardly pats the Canadians back, clearing his throat, the Netherlands turns around on his heels, leaving Matthew confused and puzzled. He quickly scurries around the Netherlands and heads down the hallway to the meeting room where every nation lies, waiting for the meeting to begin.

“America!” A loud voice booms accompanied by the person sliding their arm over Matthew’s shoulders. Matthew stands awkwardly and attempts to take the arm off of his shoulder, he turns his head and sees red eyes staring down at him with a broad grin.

“I’m Canada...” Matthew whispers out, Prussia stares at the quiet country and quickly pulls his arm back with his grin still on his face but not the same as his broad smile from earlier.

“The great Prussia knew that!” Prussia shouts but wasn’t yelling like before, Matthew could only sigh and smile timidly at the ex-nation.

“Say birdie! Why don’t we go out to eat sometime! My treat!” Matthew tilts his head at the odd nation and inwardly chuckles, he nods his head at Prussia’s suggestion and smiles softly, “I would like that.”

Prussia grins at him and takes his place in an empty seat. kumajirou paws at Matthew’s leg to be boosted up and carried, Matthew smiles at the bear and picks up him up, making his way to an empty seat.

What an odd day…

August 4th, 1914.  
Matthew, 3rd POV.

Matthew sits at his porch drinking coffee and reading the daily newspaper while listening to the radio screech on about something, he liked living in his little cabin, it gave him a nice view of the mountains and was refreshing to the quiet country.  
He glances at his watch that read 9:21 AM and then at his calendar, the date was August 4th 1914.

“I should get going...” Matthew mumbles out loud and walks into his cabin beginning to get ready to meet with England. A few days earlier, England had called Matthew asking to meet with him to discuss something.

He grabs both his keys and wallet, stuffing them both in his pantsuits pockets after putting his mug into the sink and locking the door. He takes one last glance at the green field before he descends the steps of his porch and begins to walk to the hotel that England was located at.

Matthew knocks a few times at England’s hotel room door, an English man looking messy and dishevelled swings open the door, looking at Matthew with a set of tired-looking pear green eyes that were fighting to stay awake, Matthew thought he got the wrong room number for a second, “Arthur-“

“Matthew! Where the bloody hell have you been?” England shouts at Matthew demanding answers, Matthew looks at his watch that was now reading 10:06 AM, “I just got here, is there something you wanted to ask me?” Matthew asks, looking at the disheveled English man in surprise.

England shuffles out of the way, letting Matthew enter the room, he shuffles to a sofa chair and sits down, motioning Matthew to sit on the other sofa chair in front of him, “My boss declared war on Germany today... the bloody idiot... he thinks that it’ll help to take down France.”

Matthews stomach drops, if Britain declares war on Germany, then he’ll have no choice but to join the war, he had his own government and can choose what he wants to do, just that he can’t deal with foreign countries affairs or in this case, refuse to join the war.

“Why...” Matthew’s heart tightens and his shoulders become heavy, it’s some kind of joke, right? No, England wasn’t the type to make jokes like that, not by a long shot.

“Why should I know?” England snapped at Matthew, “I-I’m sorry lad...” 

The two countries sit in silence, England looks over at Matthew with a rue look in his pear green eyes. Matthew taking notice of the look, simply shakes his head with a polite smile, but his orchid, lavender coloured eyes showed a desolate look that was almost dull looking.

“It’s okay...” Matthew uttered, if it hadn’t been so quiet, England wouldn’t have known what Matthew had said, England gets off of the sofa chair and bends down next to Matthew rubbing his back to comfort him.

“What do you think you’ll do, Arthur?” England shakes his head, “I don’t know, I think I’ll try to figure out a plan...”

Matthew nods his head, he doesn’t want a war, nor does England. But most importantly, he doesn’t want to fight Papa—Matthew made a promise to England, no matter what, he’ll protect his dad.

“What about you lad?” Matthew shrugs before nodding his head and staring England dead in the eyes, “Offer my assistance of course!” England stays in silence for a few seconds not knowing what to say or do—before bursting out with laughter.

Matthew panics and nervously laughs, “I-I um, anyways, when do you have to go back home?” Matthew sits up straighter now looking at England, Englands laughter ceased and he was now standing up, fixing his tie and suit, “Not till tomorrow morning.”

he sits back down on the other sofa chair, “Do you have anything to do today?” Matthew questions, England shakes his head raising an eyebrow, “No, why do you ask?” 

Matthew’s eyes brighten up, “Then do you want to get some coffee and stay for the night?” 

England ponders for a bit then nods his head, “If it won’t be too much of a bother.”

Matthew shakes his head and glances at his watch, 10:57 AM, “I know a nice coffee shop.”

With that, both Matthew and England walk out of the hotel after England signs out.

.

.

.

Matthew’s POV.

“It’s a nice day, eh Arthur?” Matthew politely smiles sipping his coffee, he looks outside the window of the small coffee shop admiring the small town he had grown to love over time.

Before they had arrived at the coffee shop, they had stopped by a store, Matthew claimed that he just had to buy a few ingredients for dinner and breakfast. Once they arrived at the coffee shop, Arthur ordered an Earl Grey tea with nothing while Matthew ordered a tall double-double coffee.

“It is, say, why did you invite me to come drink coffee and tea when we have better things to think about?” Matthew laughs at Arthurs question making Arthur even more confused at the reaction his question had caused, “I just wanted a distraction... I didn’t want to stay in a quiet home, alone, thinking about nothing but the war.”

He smiles before drinking his now warm coffee, Matthew didn’t want to go home with no one to confide in about it. Ever since Alfred moved out and France left him, Arthur too, felt the same. Matthew checks his watch, 12:01 PM.

“Well then, let’s go back to my home, I’ll show you where you’re gonna stay for the night.” Matthew waves his hand motioning for a waitress, a young women who looked around 26 with plump pink cheeks and wore a messy bun to keep her pale brown hair up walks up to them and asks both Arthur and Matthew in a chipper tone, “Did you enjoy the drinks? Should I split the bill?”

She smiles at both Arthur and Matthew waiting for an answer, “Like always Olivia, your drinks are always tasty. I’ll pay for both.” Matthew smiles at the women, she returns the gesture and gives a small chocolate to Matthew, winking at him before walking away to tend to the other customers.

“Why-? Never mind, I could’ve just paid for my own, Matthew.” Matthew grabs his groceries and smiles at Arthur, “It’s fine, it would be rude to make my guest pay.”

Matthew and Arthur both stand up and walk out of the coffee shop saying their thank you’s to the women who served them. The residents of the town politely greet them or politely wave as they’re walking by.  
Matthew and Arthur are both silent as they walk to the edge of town before reaching a path in the middle of the edge of the trees, the leaves crunch under Arthur’s feet while Matthew barely makes any noise, the leaves fall from the trees, it’s a beautiful view.

“How long have you been living in this town for?” Arthur breaks the silence between the two, Matthew keeps walking trying to come up with an answer, “I’ve been here ever since I became independent, although I wouldn’t say I live in the town, I live just outside of it in a cabin.” Matthew answers before going silent again.

Arthur nods, observing how tall he’s become before noticing how little noise he’s making before he slows down and stops, “We’re here.” 

Matthew looks down at Arthur and chuckles before he walks to the door of his cabin unlocking it. Arthur stands there frozen, too shocked to move, trying to take in the scenery just before his eyes.

A small green field with flowers growing all around it that was edged by trees and was overlooked by tall mountains with a bright blue lake that reflected the blue sky.  
Arthur would later find out that this province is called British Columbia. 

“Arthur?” Matthew calls out to the still awestruck English man, Arthur snaps out of it and slowly walks to Matthews cabin trying to take in as much scenery as possible, he walks up the steps to a porch with a coffee table and a single chair before walking inside the cabin.

“You can drop your luggage-“ Matthew had just realized something, Arthur didn’t bring any luggage with him, “Did you bring anything with you?”

Matthew tilts his head slightly frowning a bit at the English man in front of him, “No, I just left in a hurry and took the earliest boat I could.”

“Not even a pair of clean clothes?”

Arthur shakes his head, “I just took my wallet to pay for the food and a hotel room.” 

Matthew sighs and holds the groceries tighter to his chest. ‘He could’ve just asked me to stay over’, he frowns a bit at the thought.

“Take a bath, I’ll give you a pair of clean clothes, the bathroom is to the left in the hallway and your room is to the right of the bathroom.” Arthur nods and navigates the cabin, Matthew puts his groceries on a table and takes a glance at his watch, 12:45 PM.  
He walks into his room digging around in his closet to find anything that could fit the English man. Matthew finds an old pair of clothes, he smells the clothes to make sure it didn’t smell of anything, to his relief it was clean. 

He knocks on the bathroom door, “I left a clean pair of clothes and a towel beside the door, just leave your clothes in the hallway and I’ll wash them for you.” With that, Matthew drops the clean clothes and the towel on the ground next to the bathroom and walks to his kitchen putting away the groceries in the fridge and cabinets.

Arthur opens the bathroom door, it creaks open and he grabs the clean clothes and towel before replacing it with his old clothing. Matthew sees the dirty clothes and grabs them, putting them in a basket along with other clothes and blankets.  
Matthew walks outside, soaking the towels and blankets along with the clothing in a bucket and rinsing them out before repeating the process. He hums a tune Alfred had sung to him when they were small, he clips the clothing and lets them dry. Matthew checks his watch again, 1:04 PM, he looks over at the cabin door seeing Arthur walk out with the towel he used to dry himself with.

“Here I’ll take that,” Matthew sings out before taking the towel from Arthur’s arms, “If you want, you can turn the radio on.” Matthew offers to Arthur and continues to hum the tune he was humming earlier.

“Are you humming, ‘Mary had a little lamb’?” Arthur says now tinkering with the little radio at the small table on the porch.

Matthew looks a bit surprised but looks at Arthur with a polite smile, “Oui, Alfred use to sing me that nursery rhyme, although he is a better singer than me.”

Matthew titters out, thinking back to Alfred and him discovering a guitar for the first time. Matthew’s voice and laughter sounded a lot like Alfreds, but Matthew’s voice was more soft-spoken then Alfreds whose voice was loud. So hearing the fact Alfred was the better singer, surprised Arthur quite a bit.

“Really? I’m surprised, I’ve never heard Alfred sing before.” Matthew nods at Arthur still smiling, remembering back when they were both younger, Matthew looked up to Alfred, he was so cool, like a hero.

Matthew takes notice of the coffee table with a single chair beside it, “oui, ah right, I’ll bring you a chair, I’ll be right back.” 

Matthew walks into his cabin and drags out a chair, “Here you go.”

Matthew pats the chair, and sits down on the opposite side of the chair, Matthew looks at his watch, 1:47 PM, and turns the radio on. Matthew continues to read where he left off on the newspaper, while Arthur sits across him not knowing what to do, “There’s coffee and tea in the cabinets, feel free to make whatever, there’s also some books laying around, eh.” Matthew motions inside still looking at the newspaper.

Arthur walks inside the cabin and opens a few cupboards, earl grey, ginger, lemon, peppermint, Assam and... wine? Arthur decides to make some earl grey for himself and ginger for Matthew.

“Matthew, I made some tea for you.” Matthew looks up at Arthur and glances at his watch again, 2:20 PM.

“Thank you.” Matthew takes the tea and sets it down beside the newspaper.

“If I may ask, why do you keep checking your watch?” 

“No reason,” Matthew smiles at Arthur and drinks the tea he made, Arthur raises an eyebrow before he sighs and sits down across from him.

“Ginger?”

“Yes, I didn’t know you liked tea... and wine.” Matthew snickers and a tiny mischievous grin works its way onto his face, Matthew liked to get adventurous at times and well, let’s say that being Frances ex-colony before did have its perks.

Matthew looks at the clothes that were dancing with the wind, he sighed and leaned back in his chair rubbing the bridge of his nose.  
Matthew had a choice, he can choose whether or not he joins the military and fight for his country and people, or cower. Of course, Matthew was gonna join the military, why wouldn’t he? 

“Is there something on your mind?” Arthur looks at Matthew.

“Oui... we have a choice right?” Matthew buries his head into his arms.

“A choice for what?”

“A choice to join the military or sit in the background and watch...” Arthur leans back in the chair thinking of an answer to say, “Yes, although I wouldn’t say sitting in the background and watching is what I’d like to call it.”

Matthew sits in silence, listening to the birds sing and the radio station announces its next song, Matthew glances at his watch again 2:41 PM.

“Then what would you call it?” Arthur stays silent and ponders.

“...I don’t know yet.” Arthur begins to look distant, thinking of something.

“do you like sunsets?” Arthur a bit taken aback by this question wonders why he would ask this, “Why do you ask?”

Matthew stands up and takes down the laundry that was previously hanging and puts them in a basket, “because, if we want to see the sunset, we have to hike for a bit,” he opens the cabin door and shoves the basket inside, then grabs both the mugs and puts them in a sink with another dirty mug, “And if we get ready now and leave, we’ll be able to see it in time.”

He puts on some boots and tightens the shoelaces before putting his suit jacket on a coat hanger then proceeding to put a jacket on, he grabs another coat off of the coat hanger and holds it out, Arthur. The coat looked old and broken down, it didn’t look warm, to put it bluntly. Matthew locks the door of the cabin and looks at his watch again, 2:52 PM.

Arthur takes the coat and reluctantly puts it on, noticing how warm it actually was once on, “It’s gonna be cold once we hike back, shall we go now?”

“Cold?” Arthur questions.

“Mm, we should hurry, the sun sets at 6, the hike takes around maybe 3 hours and 30 minutes,” Matthew steps off of the porch and looks at Arthur.

“You’re free to stay at the cabin if you want to, I know you aren’t as use to the cold.” Matthew digs through his pockets and pulls out a small copper key, holding it in front Arthur, “No it’s fine, let’s go.”

Arthur shakes his head and descends the steps.

.

.

.

August 5th, 1914.  
Matthew, 3rd POV.

Matthew sat at his porch, waiting for the mail boy to come by and give him his newspaper. But he knew that the newspaper wasn’t the only thing he was waiting for.  
He sat nervously at his porch, soon, they will start asking people to join the war, and soon, will he have to leave for war. It wasn’t that he had anyone waiting for him at home. No one to wave goodbye or cry for him to not leave his comfy home. No one was waiting for him. They all forget him or never remember him anyway, so what was the point in even being nervous? He checks his watch again, 7:39 AM. The date was August 5th, 1914.

“Matthew!” A brown-haired boy who was around the age of 19 was waving at Matthew who had a sad look in his eyes as he’s running up to him.

“Noah...” Noah was a kind kid, he was the mail boy that was always on time when delivering mails, a hard worker who worked every day and night to buy medicine and put food on the table for his family, his father had grown ill and so did his mother. Since he couldn’t afford food most days, Matthew ended up teaching him how to hunt or would offer to cook food for him and his family.

“I have a flyer and a newspaper for you...” Noah stays silent looking at the flyer in his hand, Matthew nods and looks at the flyer, almost hesitant to take it. He knew he couldn’t die. He was a nation. Nations don’t die unless their countries perish or disappear.  
So why was he so hesitant on taking the flyer? Was it the fact that he didn’t want a war? Was it that if he took the flyer, he’d undoubtedly send a bunch of poor souls to their death, Sealing their fate? Matthew didn’t know, he didn’t want to know either. 

“Thank you, Noah...” Matthew takes the flyer from Noah’s hand, Noah then digs into his leather bag grabbing out a newspaper before he smiles uneasily and hands it over to Matthew.

Matthew takes the newspaper and gingerly smiles, cautious to say his next sentence, “...Are you going to join the military?” 

“I don’t want to... I need to take care of my parents... and- and I don’t- I don’t want to leave them behind... but I need the money and...” Noah looks down and clutches his bag, his voice cracks but he holds firm and doesn’t cry.  
Noah doesn’t have any siblings to help take care of his parents, he only has them and if he loses them, well, Matthew wouldn’t know how well he could take it. He understood what Noah was feeling, if any of his family members weren’t doing so well and he had the option, he wouldn’t hesitate.

“Mm, I understand... if you want, I can send someone to come and take care of them, it’s the least I could do.” Noah nods his head, “Thank you...” he squeaks out.

Matthew feels bad for the young boy who had only wanted to take care of his parents. Matthew at the time felt like it was his fault for taking away Noah’s youth. No one would ever remember the many soldiers that had died in the many wars to come. Especially Noah.

“Canada?” Arthur comes out of the cabin wearing the only pairs of clothes that he had arrived in.

“Canada?” Noah looks at the man in the cabin and back at Matthew.

“Angleterre... (England...)” Noah gets even more confused at this response.

“Bonjour, Angleterre..? (Hello, England..?)” Matthew almost facepalms, he forgot that he can’t call other countries by their countries names in front of civilians, instead he mentally screams at himself for being stupid by saying that out loud, Arthur clicks his tongue and looks at both Noah and Matthew.   
He doesn’t understand French, nor will he ever learn French, but he does understand some French, and Angleterre wasn’t his favourite French word in the world, “It’s just a name we call each other, my name is Arthur Kirkland. I’m his brother.”

Arthur steps down from the porch and pats Noah’s head, he takes a step back in surprise, probably wasn’t expecting the English accent or the head pat. Noah laughs and looks at Arthur with a smile on his face, “Wow, you’re a lot like Matthew eh? He did the same and patted my head when I first met him, I’m Noah Smith, but just call me Noah.”

Noah chortles out, Arthur sighs and shrugs, “I suppose, call me Arthur.” 

Matthew letting the two get familiar, walks into his cabin and puts the flyer and newspaper on the table before grabbing a small poppy from a vase and exiting the cabin.

“Well I should be on my way-“ 

“Before you leave, here.” Matthew hands the small poppy to Noah.

“A poppy?” Noah looks at the poppy in his hand and tilts his head.

“Oui, they’re easy to grow and symbolize peace and sleep, although they symbolized something else, I just can’t put my tongue on it...” Matthew clicks his tongue, shaking his head and smiles at Noah, “Well, I guess that doesn’t matter right now.”

Noah gently puts the poppy on his bag as to not devastate the small flower and nods his head at both Arthur and Matthew with a smile, “Au revoir, Angleterre and Canada!” he twirls around in a laugh and skips off happily onto the next house to deliver mail.

“Death.” Matthew looks at Arthur.

“Pardon?” Matthew questions.

“It symbolizes death as well.” Arthur now looking at Matthew with an unreadable expression.

“Ah, that explains it.” Matthew laughs out bitterly.

The two stay silent for a few seconds before Arthur opens his mouth and sighs deeply, “You knew that already, didn’t you?” Matthew laughs and looks at his watch, 7:58 AM.

“What time do you have to be on the boat by?” 

Arthur thinks for a moment, “By 11.”

Matthew looks down at his feet before suggesting something, “Do you want breakfast first? I can make something for you before you have to leave.”

Arthur was about to decline, he had already over welcomed his stay but his stomach growled demanding food, “I would appreciate that.” Matthew laughs and goes into the cabin while Arthur follows closely behind and closes the door.

Matthew grabs the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, butter and vegetable oil. He hums mixing all the ingredients together and pouring all the pancake batter into a pan. Arthur notices a newspaper and a flyer hidden underneath it, he attempts to grab the flyer and see it’s contents covered by the newspaper but, “What tea would you like?”

Matthew grabs a teapot and pours water in it, he then turns the stove on and heats it up, “Assam.” Matthew nods and flips the pancakes, the smell, oh how wonderful it smelt, Arthur couldn’t describe the smell of the wonderful pancakes being made, he still can’t describe it to this day.

“What would you like on your pancakes?” The teapot whistles and Matthew takes it off of the stove to cool down, pouring the water into a mug, he puts the pancakes on two plates, “It doesn’t matter.” 

Matthew smiles and puts a slice of butter, syrup and berries onto the pancakes, he hands over a plate and then the tea to Arthur, “Eat up, we have a bit of travelling to do.” 

Arthur takes a bite of the pancakes, he couldn’t describe it, it was like it had melted in his mouth, Matthew had a sneaking suspicion that Arthur wouldn’t be able to eat more than two pancakes and he was right, after finishing, he immediately got full.

“Thank you,” Arthur smiles and gets up from his chair after finishing his breakfast and puts the plate and mug into the sink. Matthew inhales his breakfast and finishes off his coffee.

“de rien (you’re welcome), Shall we go now?” 

“Sure, but before that, let me call someone before we leave, I just want them to know I’ll be back in England,” Arthur looks around, “You do have a phone right?” 

Matthew gets up and puts his dirty dishes into the sink and nods to the corner of the cabin by the fireplace, “It’s by the fireplace, I’ll be outside on the porch waiting.” 

Matthew checks his watch, 8:23 AM, they have enough time. Matthew waters the lavenders and poppies in the vase, he grabs the flyer from under the newspaper and steps outside letting Arthur talk to whoever he was gonna talk to. 

‘They started to accept military applications eh?’ Matthew had thought to himself.

November 14th, 1918.  
3 days after the end of the Great War.  
Matthew, 3rd POV.

Matthew checked his broken watch, 3:59 am.  
Matthew was sitting on a hospital bed scratching his arm that was bandaged. He had bandages all over himself, his neck, cheeks, legs and arms.  
‘Good, it’s healing.’ Matthew thought to himself. The war ended and the allies won. But why wasn’t he happy?

“We won Noah...” Matthew silently mumbled to himself. Matthew had lost his voice due to the gas, reducing him to just a mere whisper, 61,000 soldiers were killed and 172,000 were wounded. Around 619,636 Canadian soldiers had joined the war. 

He held a small non bloomed opium poppy in his hand, careful to not devastate the poor thing. He fought back tears, it had ended, the war ended. But Matthew wasn’t happy. Why wasn’t he happy? They won the war right?  
Matthew felt a small burning sensation at the tip of his nose and a lump in his throat. He can’t cry, not here. He crosses his legs on the bed and sat in silence holding the small flower until the suns beams shined through the windows. One by one wounded soldiers wake up or lay still in their beds.

“Matthew Williams?” A women’s voice rang out through the crowd of wounded or maybe dead soldiers, “Right here.”

Matthew croaked out and held his bandaged arm up, barely getting a wink of sleep.

“Can you walk?” The nurse looks at Matthews legs that were crossed on the bed, he nods and slowly gets up and off of the bed. He was still sore but he can walk and eat just fine with a little bit of difficulty, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

He grabs his bag and walks out of the hospital’s room he was previously sharing with other soldiers. She leads him to a laundry room where his old clothing was and lets him change into his clothing. He didn’t have any civilian clothing so he just wore his army’s uniform minus the hat and puttee.  
Matthew packs nothing but the metals he had earned with the opium poppy in his breast pocket. He wondered how his cabin was doing. He checks his watch again, 8:59 AM.

“Your brother is here to pick you up.” 

Matthew freezes before quietly whispering, “my brother?” He knew that Alfred was busy after the win of the Great War. So why would he be here?

“Yes, his name is Alfred F. Jones.” Matthew tightens his grip on his bag and feels the tears come back, he holds back, stopping the tears in time and nods. She leads Matthew to the front of the hospital where he drops his bag and runs up to his twin, tackling and hugging Alfred while tears fall off of his face.

“W-whoa! Mattie! Calm down! Your wounds will open if you aren’t careful!” Alfred says smiling and hugging back as tears fell off of his face as well. They stand up and hug for a few more minutes. 

Alfred’s wounds weren’t as bad as Matthews but they were there and visible, “Can we go home now?” Matthew whispers out and wipes his tears with a handkerchief as the nurse holds out his bag to him.

Alfred takes the bag and grins at the nurse, “Thanks for taking care of him!” She nods and smiles softly, letting the two twins leave as the loud one wraps his arm around the quiet one laughing and Chattering away.

“I thought you were busy?” Matthew croaks out, Alfred looks at Matthew with a frown, “Did you think I would leave my baby brother in a hospital alone when their voice sounds like a frog and their bandaged head to toe like a mummy?” Matthew smiles at this and laughs, he soon begins to cough. 

‘That hurt.’ Matthew rubs his neck That was bandaged. Alfred jumps a bit and then starts to shake the country asking if he was okay, Matthew nods his head dizzily, “O-Oui, Let’s go back to BC.”

Matthew smiles at the worried American and takes the opium poppy out of his breast pocket.

“What’s that Mattie?” Alfred looks at the small poppy in Matthew's hand pointing at it, Matthew looks at the juvenile poppy and smiles, “An opium poppy, I need to harvest the seeds from it and plant them...” he says quietly, he plants a poppy every day ever since the war had started. One for every soldier he had killed or ones that were killed in the war that day.

“Why?” Alfred tilts his head at the quiet country looking for answers.

“I’ve planted the poppies every single day ever since the war started, for every man that died, even the enemy’s that had died. I know that the poppies won’t grow from the ruined soil but I still like planting them.” He smiles softly, still looking at the poppy. 

“WHOA! THAT’S SO AMAZING MATTIE!” Alfred’s eyes widen and get a starry-eyed look in them.

Matthew flinches and looks at the loud American, “It’s not that amazing...” Matthew’s cheeks turn pink while he stuffs the poppy in his breast pocket.

“NO SERIOUSLY MATTIE! That’s really amazing and so hero-like!” Alfred shouts now jumping around him, Matthew shakes his head and smiles, “No, you’re more amazing than me, you’re more of a hero then I’ll ever be...” 

‘You’re more amazing then me Alfred, you saved more people and helped everyone you could, if anything, you deserve the title of hero...’ Matthew simply looks ahead and saddens at the thought, he doesn’t deserve the title of hero, not after what he’s done, Alfred is more deserving of the recognition.

“Mattie! What you did was amazing! Who would think to mourn their enemies who killed your fellow soldiers and even plant poppies for them!” Matthew winces harshly at the sentence as Alfred continues to shout.

He’s never liked it when people would think of the enemies as monsters. 

The enemies weren’t monsters. 

They were just doing what they were told to do. 

If they were monsters for doing what they were told to do then the allies were monsters as well.

“They’re people too... they had family’s and were only doing what they were told...” Matthew whispers out, Alfred shakes his head.

“That’s not- we’re here Mattie!” Alfred interrupts himself before running up to a car, Matthew follows him and looks at the car, how long had it been since he’s been in one? Just a few weeks ago he guesses.

“Well Mattie! Aren’t you gonna get in!” Alfred shouts at Matthew, Alfred opens the door and jumps inside it while Matthew goes around and gets in through the passenger seat.

“Since when can you drive?” Matthew looks at Alfred and gets comfortable in the car.

“Since they started to become popular!” Alfred starts the car up, the engine roars before it purrs after driving for a while. Matthew checks his watch again, 9:31 AM. 

“Do you even know where you’re going Alfie?” Matthew looks at Alfred and frowns.

“No... what state are we in?” Matthew sighs and chortles a bit.

“Toronto. If you keep driving you’ll eventually get to Ontario. And it's a province, not a state.” Matthew feels his eyes get heavy and he yawns.

“And the distance between To-ron-to and Ot-tee-wa is?” Alfred sighs, he doesn’t want to be driving for too long.

“I don’t know, maybe a little over 12 hours?” Matthew closes his eyes and begins to fall asleep, he doesn’t need to worry about being shot at or his base being blown up.

Alfred sighs before it turns into a groan and looks ahead,

“Fuck...”

**Author's Note:**

> MAN! I had to edit this page so many times to finally be happy with the finished product!
> 
> Matthews pancake recipe:  
> 1 cup of all-purpose flour (spooned and levelled)  
> 2 tablespoons of sugar  
> 2 tablespoons of baking powder  
> 1/2 teaspoon of salt  
> 1 cup of milk  
> 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted butter or vegetable oil  
> 1 egg  
> Toppings of your choice!  
> Steps:  
> 1\. Preheat the oven to 200 and put a pan over the stove with oil greased onto the pan!  
> 2\. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; set it aside!  
> 3\. In a medium bowl, whisk the milk, butter (or oil), and egg! Then add the dry ingredients (make sure to not over mix, a few clumps here and there is fine!)  
> Takes around 25 minutes to cook and prepare! The servings are 4!


End file.
